Raz, have you ever seen the movies "The Gods must be crazy" or "The Gods must be crazy II". Funny movies.

I have to disagree in a way. Yes, the bottle opener is a stress point, but the blade is very thick. Much thicker than any other folder I have owned. Just look at the pics. The thing is a beast in the thickness realm. That and the depth of the belly of the blade over compensate for the notch. If you had a blade that was the identical to the HEST's, but only went as far back as the shallowest point of the bottle opener notch, making the blade much narrower in regards to the belly, you probably wouldn't think of the notch as a stress point. The added steel will not hurt the structural integrity compared to a blade with a shallower belly and less thickness.

Hope that made sense to you. It just barely made sense to me,

Interesting stuff gentlemen. I've been thinking about ZTs for a while. ANy suggestions on the best model for all around usage?

In some areas of the world the water and beer is toped with a non-twistoff.

I have 3 ZTs. For all around use, I like the 0350.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I'd have to have a seperate MOLLE pouch just to carry the thing, lol.

My Mil-issue Gerber suits me just fine, and I can open the pliers one handed. Nice if I'm in a bind, climbing, etc.

JJ and Sumo: I do understand what you are saying JJ, but Old habits are hard to overcome. And Yup, there are MANY countries where "twist top" is not king. I don't ACTUALLY think it would be much of a consideration in real world usage but as I said, old habits and all that.

Sorry to pick on you because of something that I see all over, but it has really irked me. At some point we need to get a sense of reality. The HEST (and many others) is a super thick, super tough overbuilt folder. If you break it, you did something majorly wrong. To point out that notch could be a failure point is valid, but the failure level is so high as to be irrelevant. I would argue that unless the blade was in a vice up to the notch the true failure is much closer to the tip. That is where most knives break.

Uninformed internet failure engineering is driving me insane.

Now as far as appealing to the urban mall ninja, you are spot on. HEST is a popular opinion designed knife. The good thing is it seems to be a good knife with actual capabilities that exceed almost anyone's needs.

Thanks for letting me rant and I don't mean anything personal.

Now take a deep breath and say "goosfraba."

Foul language alert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5fAzV8Tgkg&feature=related

Folks can make fun of my new bottle opener knife all they want to. When the looting starts at the breweries, I'll be prepared!

I use the bottle opener on my Skeletool all the time here in Germany.

I may get a non-twist top beer today just for the fun of it!